The Various Types of

SAP Licenses

SAP® is a registered trademark of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries

Created by

Xpandion

Educational

Presentation

Moshe Panzer CEO, Xpandion

Author

Ask the average SAP customer or novice SAP licensing consultant

what SAP license types they know of, and they’ll probably answer

“Professional,” “Limited Professional,” “Employee” and maybe “ESS”

(Employee Self Service).

But these aren’t all, thus this their negotiating power with SAP is limited.

SAP® is a registered trademark of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries

From our experience over the years with numerous licensing

projects, we have seen many, many types of licenses.

SAP® is a registered trademark of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries

SAP license types are

divided into three main

categories:

• Licenses for combined

SAP applications

• Licenses for individual, or

separated, applications

• External licenses for

applications that were

bought by SAP, but the

license types remain as

they were beforehand

The Various SAP License Types

SAP® is a registered trademark of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries

“Classic” SAP customers fall under this category. User licenses

such as “Professional,” “Limited Professional” and “Employee” are

defined as global licenses for a suite of products like SAP ERP, SAP

CRM, SAP BI, SAP APO.

These are employee-based licenses, meaning the organization

buys them for an employee and this employee can freely use

multiple SAP products as long as the license type covers them.

SAP® is a registered trademark of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries

Licenses for Combined SAP Applications

Licenses for Individual

or Separated Applications

Some SAP customers need additional licenses to use a specific

application. For example, if many external employees use a

portal, it would be a waste to buy global licenses for them.

Instead, the organization would buy a license for the portal itself

and give it to each employee. SAP® is a registered trademark of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries

This category belongs to customers who migrated to SAP after SAP had bought the company or application that they were using. This often happens with BusinessObjects customers.

In some cases, current customers who want to buy applications that were recently purchased by SAP are also required to obey the migrated licenses until SAP includes them in regular license types.

SAP® is a registered trademark of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries

External Licenses for Applications That

Were Bought by SAP, But The License Types

Remain as They Were Beforehand

For a complete overview of the different SAP license types, refer to SAP’s official guide and

Xpandion’s SAP Licensing Quick Guide.

SAP Licensing

Quick Guide click here

SAP Official Guide click here

SAP® is a registered trademark of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries

Some use specially created license types like “Manager,” “Top-User” and

“Safety.” These license types were “invented” by the local SAP office and

aren’t official SAP license types. You can’t find definitions for them in SAP

documentation and if you have them in your organization, check that they

are clearly defined.

An example of a good definition is something like: ““Top-User will be the

license type of an employee who uses one of all the SAP systems above

10,000 dialog steps per month.” When the definition of a specially

created license type is clear, nobody can argue with it and you can even

buy more if your company is expanding and needs extra licenses.

SAP® is a registered trademark of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries

“Specially Tailored” License Types

From the SAP System Measurement Guide, Version 7.0: “Named users

are also upstream and intermediary technical systems that exchange

information with the SAP software system, as well as the users of those

systems, if the users exchange information with the SAP software in

dialog or prompt mode. It makes no difference whether the software is

accessed directly or indirectly.”

Since 2013, SAP has been much more sensitive about indirect use and

looks for it more thoroughly during the annual audit. You must identify

indirect use and count it in your licensing quota.

SAP® is a registered trademark of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries

Beware of Indirect Use

In October of 2013, German court ruled that SAP

cannot restrict software resale citing that their terms

and conditions are anti-competitive. This will make big

changes in the way people use their SAP licensing and

overall licensing budget for obvious reasons.

SAP® is a registered trademark of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries

Are You Allowed to

Re-sell Unused Licenses?

If you need to buy licenses from SAP, know that there are more

license types beyond the common ones. Furthermore,

remember that in certain cases your local SAP representative

can tailor a special license for your situation. Don’t make the

mistake of thinking that everything’s set beforehand or that you

are locked into only buying brand new.

Negotiate Better

SAP® is a registered trademark of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries

SAP® is a registered trademark of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries

Re-inspect & Optimize

If you are currently in, or close to, an SAP licensing audit, you

might want to re-inspect your inventory to find unsuitable license

types. Remember that an unused license is a total waste, and

unsuitable license types can result in extra expenses. Your

licensing schema should fit your needs perfectly and support

your business requirements and future plans.

SAP® is a registered trademark of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries

Xpandion is the leading provider of

license optimization software solutions for SAP.

If you have any questions or concerns about your SAP licensing,

contact us now. click here.